The current state of the art for applying known Poisson distributed emitters is to immediately convert the received signal into analog form using an optical-to-electrical (OE) conversion device (or circuit). It is then processed using Gaussian based detection rules typically associated with RF communications. The conversion to analog form introduces Gaussian noise into the signal path altering the statistical properties of the original Poisson based signal. The Gaussian approach is popular, however, because it falls back upon well-understood signal processing methodology. The advantages of using Poisson based methodology both in terms of relative simplicity of processing and expanded operating envelope have not been well understood. This is due to some extent to the difficult mathematical analysis of system performance and the lack of low cost implementations.